People gave up on the flu pandemic a century ago when they were tired of it – and paid a price

Imagine the United States struggling to deal with a deadly pandemic.

Civil servants and local officials put in place a number of measures for social distance, prohibition, closure orders and mask mandates to stem the tide of cases and deaths.

The public responds with widespread compliance mixed with more than a hint of grumbling, backlash and even utter defiance. As the days turn into weeks into months, the restrictions become harder to tolerate.

Theater and dance hall owners complain about their financial losses.

Clergy mourn the closure of the church while offices, factories and in some cases even salons are allowed to remain open.

Officials argue whether children are safer in classrooms or at home.

Many citizens refuse to wear face masks while in public, some complain that they are uncomfortable and others claim that the government has no right to infringe on their civil liberties.

As familiar as it may sound in 2021, it is a true description of the United States during the deadly flu pandemic in 1918. In my research as a historian of medicine, I have repeatedly seen how much our current pandemic is the one our ancestors’ experienced a century ago, reflects.

As the COVID-19 pandemic begins its second year, many people want to know when life will return to what it was like before the coronavirus. History, of course, is not an exact pattern for what the future holds. But the way Americans emerged from the earlier pandemic may suggest what life will be like after the pandemic this time around.

Sick and tired, ready for the end of the pandemic

Like COVID-19, the flu pandemic struck quickly and rapidly in 1918, and within weeks of a handful of reported cases in a few cities following a nationwide outbreak. Many communities have carried out several closure orders – consistent with the flood and the aftermath of their epidemics – in an effort to curb the disease.

These measures to distance society have worked to reduce cases and deaths. Just like today, however, it was difficult to maintain. By late autumn, a few weeks after the orders that were socially removed came into effect, it looked like the pandemic would come to an end as the number of new infections decreased.

People complained about returning to their normal lives. Businesses have urged officials to be allowed to reopen. The state and local authorities believed that the pandemic was over, and the orders to revoke public health. The nation has used its efforts to address the devastating flu.

For the friends, families, and associates of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who died, life after the pandemic was filled with sadness and grief. Many of those who were still recovering with their illness needed support and care while recovering.

At a time when there was no federal or state safety net, charities began to take action to provide resources for families who had lost their breadwinners, or to take in the countless children orphaned by the disease.

For the vast majority of Americans, however, life after the pandemic seemed like a major rush to normal. Many were eager to return to their old lives when they starved for weeks in the city, sporting events, religious services, classroom interactions, and family gatherings.

Americans are taking their directions from officials who – somewhat prematurely – declared an end to the pandemic, and Americans are overwhelmingly in a hurry to return to their routes before the pandemic. They packed up in cinemas and dance halls, huddled in shops and boutiques and gathered with friends and family.

Officials have warned the country that cases and deaths are likely to continue for months to come. However, the burden of public health now is not on policy, but rather on individual responsibility.

Predictably, the pandemic continued and stretched to a third deadly wave that lasted through the spring of 1919, with a fourth wave hitting in the winter of 1920. Some officials blamed the rise of carefree Americans. Others underestimated the new issues or drew their attention to more routine public health issues, including other illnesses, restaurant inspections, and sanitation.

Despite the ongoing pandemic, flu quickly became old news. It was once a regular feature of front pages, and reports quickly declined to small, sporadic clippings buried in the back of the country’s newspapers. The nation continued with the toll the pandemic claimed and the deaths yet to come. People were largely unwilling to return to socially and economically disruptive public health measures.

It’s hard to hang in there

Our predecessors can be forgiven if they no longer stay the course. First, the nation was eager to celebrate the recent end of World War I, an event that may have been greater in the lives of Americans than even the pandemic.

Second, death from disease in the early 20th century was a much larger part of life, and pests such as diphtheria, measles, tuberculosis, typhoid, whooping cough, scarlet fever, and pneumonia regularly killed tens of thousands of Americans each year. Moreover, the cause or epidemiology of influenza is well understood, and many experts were not convinced that social distance measures have any measurable impact.

In the end, there were no effective flu vaccines to save the world from the devastation of the disease. In fact, the flu virus would not be detected for 15 years, and a safe and effective vaccine was only available to the general population in 1945. Given the limited information they had and the tools at their disposal, Americans may have endured public health. restrictions as long as they could reasonably.

A century later and a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, it is understandable that people are now all too eager to return to their old lives. The end of this pandemic will inevitably come, as it has experienced with every previous humanity.

However, if we have anything to learn from the history of the flu pandemic in 1918, as well as our experience so far with COVID-19, it is an early return to the pre-pandemic that puts more cases and more deaths at risk.

And today’s Americans have significant advantages over those of a century ago. We have a better understanding of virology and epidemiology. We know that social distancing and masking work to help save lives. The most critical is that we have multiple safe and effective vaccinations in use, with the rate of vaccinations increasing weekly.

Adhering to all these factors to fight coronavirus, or to alleviate it, can mean the difference between a new disease state and a faster end to the pandemic. COVID-19 is far more contagious than flu, and several alarming SARS-CoV-2 variants are already spreading around the world. The deadly third wave of flu in 1919 shows what can happen if people relax their guard prematurely.

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